An F-15E Strike Eagle takes off.

An F-15E Strike Eagle takes off. U.S. Air Force, Senior Airman Thomas Spangler

US Allows Qatar to Buy F-15s — and Seals a $19B Sale of Jetliners

Officials deny linking the military and commercial deals, but insiders say otherwise.

The White House’s recent decision to allow the sale of F-15 fighter jets to Qatar helped to seal the $18.6 billion purchase of 100 Boeing jetliners announced Friday by Qatar Airways, according to people with knowledge of the deal.

Executives with Boeing and state-owned Qatar Airways denied links between the military and commercial sales.

“The Qatar Airways has its independent policy of ordering airplanes,” CEO Akbar Al Baker said when asked whether the two sales were connected. “So nothing is attached to anything.”

But the jetliner deal — which has been under negotiation for months — was finalized less than two weeks after the Obama administration approved the 36 F-15 fighter jets for Qatar on Sept. 28, people close to the agreement say.

The up-to-$4 billion fighter jet deal has been in the works for years, but has reportedly been on hold while the U.S. negotiated a 10-year, $38 billion security package with Israel. Israel has reportedly raised objections to Qatar buying F-15s.

Last week, White House officials informally told members of Congress that the F-15 sale would get approval, but the State Department and Pentagon have yet to formally announce the deal, which reportedly has options for up to 72 fighters. Boeing builds the F-15 in St. Louis.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways and Boeing executives called the commercial airliner deal historic.

“Today’s announcement really exemplifies the benefits of a global partnership and how trade and innovation go hand-in-hand in an increasingly interconnected world to make it a better and a safer place,” said Ray Conner, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

The airliner deal includes the purchase of 30 787-9 Dreamliners and 10 777-ER aircraft, valued at $11.7 billion, according to Boeing. The twin-engine planes are used on long-haul, intercontinental routes. Qatar also signed a “letter of intent” for 60 737 MAX 8 aircraft, which are used for shorter regional flights, worth $6.9 billion. Finalizing that deal would be a huge score for Boeing; currently, Qatar Airways flies only European-made Airbus single-aisle planes on these regional routes.

Conner said the deal would affect 104,000 jobs across America, not just in the Seattle area where Boeing builds commercial aircraft.

Boeing and Qatar Airways consummated the sale Friday at a lavish signing ceremony at the Four Seasons hotel in Washington. VIPs in attendance included Anthony Blinken, the deputy secretary of state and former deputy national security adviser to President Obama; and Qatar Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi. Blinken and Al Emadi sat on the dais with Conner and Al Baker, but left before a question-and-answer session with journalists.

“A critical and steadfast partner to the United States, Qatar has always played an outside diplomatic and strategic role in its own region, but also increasingly beyond,” Blinken said. “It’s an influential contributor to political, security and economic progress in the Middle East and we are proud of our deepening cooperation on a very diverse range of issues.”

Blinken also touted Qatar’s participation in the U.S.-led coalition of nations fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The deal “will bring us even closer together,” he said.

Al Baker noted that Qatar is home to Al Udeid Air Base, the location of U.S. Air Forces Central Command’s combined air and space operations center, which oversees the airstrike campaign against ISIS.

“Qatar is a very strong ally of the United States,” he said. “This relationship will only get stronger, but has no relation to Boeing or Qatar Airways or Qatar’s aircraft orders that we placed today.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.